New testament this morning from Revelation, Revelation chapter 19. Revelation, or its Greek title is the Apocalypse of John. Revelation 19, I’ll be reading the first 16 verses. Once again, please give your full attention, this is the word of our God. After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just, for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servant. Once more, they cried out, hallelujah, The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And from the throne came a voice saying, praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah. For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and that his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. The fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then he fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and the one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war, and his eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are written many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. and the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth come a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe, on his thigh, he has a name written, King of King and Lord of Lords. The word of the Lord. Oh man, you may be seated. And so we continue this morning in the book of Daniel. If you take your copy of the scriptures and turn to Daniel, we’ll be reading chapter seven, the first 18 verses. Again, Daniel seven, verses one to 18. Before we hear from the Lord once more, let’s ask his blessing once again on the preaching and the hearing and the reading of the sermon text. Let’s pray once more, would we? Our great God and Heavenly Father, we come again before you as we delight to be in your presence and to raise to you our songs of worship and praise. And Lord, we pray that in your goodness that you would press down upon our lives with the weight of your word. that humbles our pride, but also by your grace lifts us into your presence, that we may indeed delight in hearing your voice and having you work upon our lives as you minister to us through your word and by your spirit. And so we pray, Lord, as we hear that by your grace and your spirit, through this word, that you would grow us together into the likeness of our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ. We ask this all in his name and all God’s people said, amen, amen. John chapter seven, again, we read verses one to 18. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel declared, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea, and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings. Then as they looked, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of man was given to it. And behold another beast, the second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth. And it was told, arise, devour much flesh. And after this I looked, and behold another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth and it devoured and broke into pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. It had 10 horns. I considered the horns and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one. before which three of the first horns were plucked up by its roots. And behold, in this horn were the eyes like eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousands times ten thousands stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. And I look then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beast, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people’s nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed. As for me, Daniel, My spirit within me was anxious, and the visions in my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all of this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the things. These four great beasts are four kings who shall rise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever. So for the reading of God’s word, may he indeed add his blessing to it at this time. Well, it’s so good to be here with you all on the Lord’s day, this day for worship. Indeed, we should always remember that this is God’s gift to his people. And when we can come again after our week, this first day of the week and receive his blessing and receive the relief from the world and its insanity and the lies that it tells us. And we can have our minds once again washed from those lies of the world. And we can be reminded that though it looks like the world is falling apart, the economy is being destroyed and the ideology and the brainwashing that’s going on all around us and the attack on the family and children and language even. And we come again and we are encouraged once more and reminded that God indeed is in control. Jesus reigns and his promises are still valid. They’re ever valid. And he will make things right, all things. And then we still have new hearts and a home in glory. And so we need this day, week by week, to remind us of what is true. To remind us of what is true for our health, for our stability, for our effectiveness in this world, for our lives, dear Christian. And so as we look at chapter seven again, and we’re working through this for a number of weeks, I’ve entitled the chapter seven just for this hinged chapter, Encouragement from the End of the World as We Know It, right? Encouragement from the End of the World as We Know It. We continue in chapter seven, and we’ll see as we dig into it that though this present evil age is characterized by fallenness and beastliness, and indeed is beastly. Nevertheless, a day is coming when the beasts and beastliness of this age will be put to an end. And we learn like God’s people in exile learned and were encouraged. We too, that because of these things, We can have hope in waiting, right? Can have hope in waiting and live while we live in the longing of that day, longing for the end of the monstrousness of this age and the beginning of the final age in a country without sin, beholding the beauty and glory of our Savior, right? No more sin, no more pain or suffering or tears or death anymore. And so we must remember, too, that this word was written and preserved for us, right, for our protection, for our encouragement, for our instruction. Last week, we read Romans chapter 5, where Paul tells us, I’m sorry, Romans chapter 15, where Paul tells us in verse 4, whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope, might have hope. God’s Word is for us, brothers and sisters. This Word gives us history. It also teaches us how to think. It gives us a proper worldview. It provides a true worldview, how we are to interpret reality, all things appropriately, right? And this is so important that we remember and acknowledge, particularly when that biblical worldview is challenged constantly, right? The time that we live in is perhaps more than any before. because of the technology that we have, a time when we are bombarded and saturated and inundated constantly without ceasing, right, with ways of thinking that are contrary to God’s word. We can never underestimate the work of evil in this world and its influence around us. And we can never undervalue our time with God, our time in God’s word. We can never undervalue that or being deprogrammed as we’re corrected as we read it. And we replace the world’s lies with the truths of the Lord that he has given us for our encouragement, for our hope. And this word, all of it is for us, right? We are people of the book, it’s been said. And so we’ll either align our thinking with the world or we’ll rather align ourselves with thinking of the world or with the thinking of the word, right? And we of course want to do the latter. And as those who name the name of Christ, We are to submit to the word of Christ and be grown and informed by it as it challenges us and corrects us and gives us a reason to praise and glorify our dear Lord. And it’s only then that we can speak the truth and love to this present evil age for the good of this world and for the glory of God. And so as we’re through these 18 verses this week and the next, we’re going to see, by way of outline, in verses 1 to 8, we see a survey of history’s kingdoms. In verses 9 to 12, we see a scene of heaven’s court. And then in verses 13 to 18, we see the Son of Man’s kingdom, the Son of Man’s kingdom. So a survey, a scene, and then the Son of Man. And because God is sovereign, dear people, God is sovereign. He’s the author of history. Because of that, his people will possess, we read here, that kingdom forever and ever. The wickedness and beastliness of this age will not have final victory. Victory belongs to the Lord. Belongs to the Lord. And those united to him shall be victorious in him and with him. And that indeed is an awesome reality. And that’s encouraging, right? It’s an encouraging thing. And so as we get back into this chapter, we remember that the second half of Daniel is no longer given in a third-person narrative, right? The second half is from the first-person point of view, and it’s apocalyptic literature, right? Remember we said last week, apocalyptic, the word from Greek just means an unveiling or a revelation, right? It’s given to reveal things, not to confound us, right? And so remember we said that understanding this type of writing It’s important, right, what it’s doing, what the goal is. It’s important for us to understand what’s going on and to avoid the pitfalls and speculation and miss the point, the overall point of this writing. Biblical apocalyptic literature, remember we said, is a revelation of the ending of the present age of conflict and its replacement by the final age of peace. And it shows us ahead of time the end of the kingdoms of this world. their replacement by the kingdom of God forever. And so it has the purpose of exhorting and comforting the faithful, right, not confusing and confounding the faithful, but encouraging and instructing, exhorting God’s people. And that’s very helpful. It’s very helpful indeed. And it’s helpful to remember as we work through this literature, that’s the purpose, right? It’s helpful to ground us as we read through this material. The first half of Daniel, remember, he gave us some of the history of himself and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. And he told us about things that happened with these two Babylonian kings and then a Persian king, right? Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and then Darius, also known as Cyrus. And the second half of the book of Daniel, chapters 7 to 12, begin with this dream and this vision that God gives to Daniel that lays out the centuries to come. second half of Daniel can be difficult. Some of the most amazing and incredible parts of God’s Word that we read here. And it’s a pivot point or a hinge between these two halves of Daniel. Chapter 7 is. Some commentators have called chapter 7 the literary hinge of the book or the key to history and the book’s most important chapter. And these are, of course, accurate, right? If you’ve read these chapters, they’re accurate because chapter 7 tells us about what? About whom, rather, the most important person in all of history and the one who is the key to understanding all of history, one like the Son of Man, one like the Son of Man. We’ll look at this in more detail next week. And these visions of these monsters, right, these beasts, these four beasts in chapter 7, it’s from the same time of Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream, Vision, and Chapter 2, you’ll recall. Daniel’s visions in chapters 8 to 12 going forward, he’ll talk about the kingdoms that rise up and fall after Babylon, about the exiles return and rebuild of Jerusalem, the rise of this Antichrist figure, and the end of the age. and emphatic and central to the first half of Daniel is that Yahweh is in control. Yahweh is in control over all the empires and all the kings of the empires. And we recognize that Daniel 7 has a close similarity. There are close similarities with chapter 2, again, with the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, right? They interrelate. But in chapter 7, Daniel’s dream is focused on that mysterious statue-crushing rock, remember, that we read about in chapter 2, the one not cut by human hands. Remember that metallic statue image that was represented by great world kingdoms, right? And we remember, we recognize the horizons of prophecy. Remember, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream was about a long period of time. from Babylon’s fall in 539 B.C. to the successive empires, one conquering the next after another. And there have, of course, been suggestions about what these kingdoms are. People have tried to identify these. Some say it’s Babylon and then Persia and then the Greek Empire, and then the greatest of these, the Roman Empire, represented by the different parts of that image. You remember the head of gold and the chest of silver and the bronze legs and then the feet mixed with clay. And that’s how Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in chapter 2 depicted these world empires. Daniel’s dream in chapter 7 depicts them as what? Disturbing, fearsome beasts. Terrifying monsters, large and threatening. They’re evil and opposed to God. and that empire-crushing rock of Daniel 7 is revealed to us as a person, right, a person, one like the Son of Man. In this figure in the New Testament, one like the Son of Man is identified as none other, of course, than Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, who himself, he self-identified, Jesus did, in the all that discourse in chapter 24 of Matthew. Daniel didn’t have Matthew chapter 24. We do. Matthew chapter 24, We read this immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to another.” Right? And so we see this is the key, right? We see this here. Jesus identifies himself as for us, right? Here and elsewhere, many, many texts in the New Testament. Daniel is quoted, Daniel 7 particularly, is quoted or alluded to about 50 times in the New Testament. 50 times, mostly from the book of Revelation, mostly in the book of Revelation. And so 600 years before the second person of the Trinity, the Lord took on flesh and entered into his creation. Daniel sees his glory, this one who will shatter the kingdoms of the world and whose kingdom is everlasting, will have no end. This is why last week we read Psalm chapter two. Psalm two speaks of these things. Okay, so last week we saw the chronology, right, of chapter 7. It goes back to the time when the Babylonians still ruled, right, in the first year of Belshazzar. King of Babylon, right? So we’re going back chronologically. And Daniel writes this book, again, for what purpose? It’s to give hope to the people of God, to his people while they’re in exile, the hope that they needed in a foreign land. And so we see first in verses one to eight, a survey of the kingdoms of history, a survey of history’s kingdoms. And again, Daniel is the author, we see, I saw in my vision, And Daniel sees what? He sees his vision, this stirred up sea, the waters of chaos. Again, the sea is a common apocalyptic image in Scripture of a mysterious and frightening realm of danger. Storm and tempest was thought to be the dwelling place of the dragon, Satan himself. Isaiah says that the nations are like the sea in this constant turmoil and upheaval, right? For instance, one example, Isaiah 17, where it says, ah, the thunder of many peoples, they thunder like the thundering of the sea. Ah, the roar of the nations. They roar like the roaring of mighty waters. The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but He will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind and whirling dust before the storm. Psalm 107 tells us that it’s the Lord alone who has the power to restrain the chaos of the water. And so we see that this here in Daniel, this stirred up sea is producing what? These hideous creatures, one after the other, four in all, each one more frightening and disturbing than the one that came before it. And these enormous, combined, amalgamated, distorted animals weren’t the kinds of things that we really ever think about or even dream about. Just to summarize, the first beast that he sees, like a lion with eagle’s wings, but the wings are plucked off, standing like a man with the mind of a man, disturbing. The second is like a bear, it says, raised up on one side, as in either ready to attack or perhaps it’s just deformed for some reason, ribs in its teeth, right, from its former prey, its former meal. It’s ordered to devour much flesh. And they get more and more gnarly as we go, these beasts. The third one’s like a leopard with four bird wings and four heads. It’s given dominion, we read. And then a fourth, terrifying, dreadful, exceedingly strong creature. It has great iron teeth, it says. It devours, crushes, and tramples. We read this was different from the other beasts that were before it. It had ten horns. This fourth beast, Daniel, doesn’t even relate to it in terms of earthly animals. That’s how bizarre and hideous this fourth creature is. He says this in verse 7. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. And these great things, what this means is speaking boastfully, bragging, speaking insolently, speaking great boasts arrogantly. And we saw already there are world empires and kingdoms that come to power and are crushed by the next that we can identify historically. And these beasts and their descriptions even match symbols of those kingdoms that we read here. But it’s important that we don’t get hung up with trying to match and identify each beast with different empires or trying to identify the 10 horns that we read here. The ten horns are most certainly not a reference to ten modern nations, right? You don’t need to read today’s headlines to get what Scripture is giving us here, right, what it’s teaching. There’s a broader principle, I would contend, a broader principle. And the Lord is only as specific as he wants to be. And so we don’t want to miss the broader point that these beasts are representative of kings and authorities that come and go and come and go and control the world, even in which we live. And while they’re generally agreed upon points in regarding this passage, it’s debated who these kingdoms, what they exactly were. Some say it’s Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece. Others say it’s Babylon and the Medo-Persians, and then Greece and Rome. but they will never fully resolve the debate in this life because the information given us in the text is not sufficiently precise to do so. And more importantly, When we consider this, what’s going on and what’s being said and how to understand this, it’s important that we understand. We read in verses 17 and 18, when this angelic interpreter explains the dream to Daniel, when he wants to know the matter of these things, what they mean, this angelic interpreter doesn’t clarify the identity of the kingdoms. So this is a huge clue for us. Huge clue, right? Speculative theology is not a good thing, right? We’re not to speculate and try to dig in what’s not there. There’s a huge clue here that a proper understanding of this vision does not rest on correlating the beast to specific earthly kingdoms. In fact, when we try to do so, it actually directs us away from the proper interpretation of this vision. Those who try and match the beast with specific empires assume that the rule of the beast described the way in which the world was in the past until the Romans, for instance, or until Antiochus Epiphanes, etc., depending on the position that one takes. This view also presupposes that in our time, things are supposed to be different or less beastly. In fact, identifying the beasts as four past empires is a clue for us. It ends up being the exact opposite of the message of apocalyptic literature. Remember, it is to encourage and to reveal. for this kind of literature, nothing less than the beginning of the new age can change this world when this world goes away and the final age comes. And so until the coming of that new age, the darkness will not significantly let up from the nations of the world. And so it’s better to view this in the number of the beast, four, as representing what four symbolizes, right? This is the symbol of completeness rather than a particular number of world empires. It’s all of the world empires throughout history. And so rightly understanding apocalyptic literature and its goal, the message of Daniel 7 is that life in this present age will always be like this until the end of the age. That’s when the promise is that all things will be made new. And it is fascinating, right? When we look at even nations in our own time, world superpowers, still typically represented by what? They represent themselves by predatory animals, right? Think of the Russian bear, right, or the Chinese dragon, or even our own American eagle. The beasts of the present age may change their shape as the centuries go forward, but their violence and their lust for power continues, right? Belches are turns into Adarius, who turns into Alexander the Great, and then Antiochus Epiphanes, the king who violently oppressed the Jews in the second century BC. And these fierce rulers give way. They’re succeeded by Nero and Domitian. Many more beasts could be mentioned, right? You could spend the rest of the day filling it up with these beasts, these rulers. Hitler, Stalin, the Kims of North Korea, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, murderous beasts, all of them. And these beastly monsters of our age still ravage and seek prey in many, many ways to pervert and oversexualize our children or to kill them before they’re even born by the abortionist cultists, not to mention the evil persecution of the church around the globe in our day. And we could go on. But the point of these writings is not to confuse us or to keep us upset and frightened, but to have hope that these beasts, all of them, will one day be judged and destroyed from the earth forever. And that’s encouraging. It’s critical for us to notice that the focus of this chapter as a whole is not the monsters themselves. The purpose is not to give us nightmares, but to calm our bad dreams, to calm our fears. The focus of Daniel 7 is on the coming of divine judgment against these things, the coming of the Lord, when these monsters will finally receive justice from God and will win the final victory. God will win the final victory. And so as we continue to dip our toes in this part of Daniel, we have to remember this, right? encounter the wickedness and evilness of this age in obvious ways and in small, subtle ways, we’re not to despair, brothers and sisters. When our economy is being destroyed, our institutions are run by vile, unhinged, deranged people bent on destroying anything godly or good in the world. And when our lives are impacted harshly and significantly by the decisions of those who rule over us in our government, we remember We don’t stop there, and we don’t despair. We remember that the Lord reigns. The Lord rules. He is in control. He is sovereign over all these things. He is working out his plan according to his timeline, and it’s up to us to believe that, right, to believe and trust that. And like Daniel and those in exile with him, we too must live in hope. We live in hope despite all of these things. And when the lies of our own hearts Monstrous as they can be, when they lie and we are tempted to believe that evil has won the victory, we remember again. We remember again and we plead to the Lord for faith, faith that He alone is sovereign. We submit to the Lord and His providence. This isn’t a minor thing, brothers and sisters, and it’s no comfort unless it’s true. We’re not those who just hope in hope or have faith in faith. We don’t just wish upon a star to convince ourselves that we’re not to be stressed out. We have the Holy Spirit. If you belong to Jesus, you’re united to him and the Holy Spirit dwells within you. God’s love is poured into our hearts, and he reminds us again, and he gives us faith to believe the truths that he’s given us in Scripture. It’s not comforting and hopeful and amazing that there’s a God out there somewhere promising justice and relief for his people. That’s not what’s amazing and glorious, but that he is your God, loving you personally, and that he is working all things according to his plan for your good personally. In all the stuff of this world that we go through, let us remember that Jesus saves and Jesus reigns. Let us go back into the land of our exile in this week, rejoicing, rejoicing that He has finished all that needed to be done to free us, to make us right before the Father. Now, we don’t have to self save ourselves working on that treadmill of merit. Let us rejoice that He has done it all and that we are free and clean and empowered to love and to rejoice even now, even now in the context of the monstrous world that we live. Let us go, brothers and sisters, rejoicing and sharing the love that we’ve been shown in Christ, living for him, our Redeemer and King. And we call out again, evermore, more of you, Jesus. I want more of you. I want to love you more. I want to love you most. So let’s go back in the world, doing these very things, living for this King. Amen. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we come again before you. We praise you for your work in this world. We thank you, Lord, for loving us, for giving your son that we would have life. We pray, Heavenly Father, Help us to maintain faith and trust in your providence, in your sovereign working in this world, and even in this society. Lord, on a big and a small scale, Father, give us grace to love those who hate, to embrace and love those with whom we disagree. Help us to not compromise the truth or the love that we’re to show, that you called us to show and to embrace. Lord, help us to show the love of Jesus to the worst offenders. Father, we pray, give us hearts that believe you when you say that vengeance is yours, and that we are to bless and help and pray for those in need. Lord, protect us from the world, the flesh, and the devil, and give us strength for this week until we can come again and be refreshed and reminded again of your love and the truth of who we are in Christ. Lord, we delight to give you praise. We thank you for your providence in our lives and for our beloved Savior, who gave us life for our sins and rose again for our justification. We ask, dear Lord, that you would help us to have mercy, to see all of our lives through the lens of what we’ve been given in Christ and the mercy and compassion of our King and Savior. Lord, give us maturity, grow us, give us grace and care for the lost, even the most wicked sinner, Help us to pray for the destruction of their wicked hearts and for God’s love to bring them to Christ. We pray, Lord, for this morning, for our missionaries around the world, those who labor in hostile places. We pray, Lord, that you would protect them, protect your missionaries and their families, and that you would give them energy to fulfill the labor for your glory in the places that they are serving. We pray for your word as it goes out across the world, that it would have its full effect, that you would bring your people in. Pray for this congregation of your people this morning here as we face all the struggles in this life that we do. And we pray for those who are suffering this morning in many ways, relationally, economically, Lord, whatever it may be, physical pain and suffering. We ask that you would grant us relief and mercy and freedom And if it’s your will, Lord, to heal, whatever your perfect will, Lord, we pray, draw us close unto you, and we would abide our suffering well. And then we would know that we have a perfect and loving and gentle Lord who cares for us beyond all comprehension and the certainty that we will be made new. Pray for all those struggling, represented here in particular sins. We ask for release. Lord, help us to know what you’ve told us. We are dead to sin, and we’ve been raised to walk in newness of life. We’re no longer in bondage. Lord, help us to grow, to trust that truth, Lord, and to believe, to have faith. Lord, we thank you for your patience with our slowness. We pray, grant us faith that we would believe you, what you say concerning us. Dear Lord, we pray for the households represented here this morning as well. Forgive our failure, we pray, in our various roles that you placed us. Grant to us that we would long to rightly be who you have made us in those roles. We pray for our children, Lord, so precious to us and more precious to you. Protect them, we pray. We praise you for the expectant mothers and their babies, Lord. We pray, protect them. and these children that are being knit together within them, Lord. We rejoice in the day of their delivery, Lord, as your kingdom expands on this earth. What a wonderful and blessing covenant children are to us, even more so to you who love them beyond our understanding. Father, we pray for the officers of Providence. Lord, give us wisdom, integrity, and love to care for your people. Bless them in their work. Lord, we pray as well this morning for our unbelieving loved ones and family. Father, we pray that you would work on them, draw them to yourself. It’s your will. or that you would remove the hearts of stone within them, give them hearts that beat for Christ, that they would have life and then we would rejoice together with them. For all of us, Heavenly Father, be merciful to us, provide for our physical needs, we pray, strengthen us spiritually, keep us from growing satisfied or from growing fearful, but strengthen us and conform us evermore into the image of our king, your son, Jesus. For it’s in his name that we pray all these things through the spirit, amen.